Conservative Reading

Obamacare Determines What Insurance Companies Will Pay For

Most Americans did not support the passage of the Obamacare style healthcare reform bill. As time goes by, Americans, including members of Congress who voted for the healthcare reform bill without knowing what was in the bill, are becoming increasing alarmed by the impacts to health insurance. As the government begins to implement the Obamacare healthcare reform, the negative impacts of the bill begin to impact all Americans.

The latest Obamacare support polls show 58% of Americans against with 37% in favor. As Americans begin to understand how “unintended consequences” of Obamacare will impact all American families, support will continue to fall.

The healthcare reform bill extended the power of the Federal Government to determine how healthcare insurance companies are run. Obamacare implemented a mandate that 85% of insurance company revenue is paid outer for healthcare coverage, leaving only 15% of health insurance company revenue to run the company. The current average runs between 65% and 75%. Congressional Democrats and other anti-capitalists consider anything over 15% representative of waste and overhead inherent in the greedy capitalist system.

The absurdity of those arguments aside, there is an unintended consequence with the Federal Government mandating the expense ratios of private companies. Federal bureaucracies are now having to determine what services are covered within the 85% of revenue that must be paid out.

As healthcare insurance companies seek to be more competitive by covering services that may actually reduce costs, the government gets to decide if those services count toward the 85% that must be paid out. Anything that the government decides does not count toward that level of spending will most likely not be covered.

According to a recent healthcare reform article in the Wall Street Journal, “…how to classify a program to double-check doctors orders to avoid one of the unnecessary surgeries that kill some 12,000 people every year? Or counseling, calls, emails and other types of case management to make sure patients comply with their diabetes regimen? Or investments in electronic medical records? Obviously these programs aren’t the same as an O.R. visit, but they still cost money, often a lot of it, and many insurance programs pay or are starting to pay for them.” If a healthcare insurance company can not include those costs in the 85% federal mandate, they will not continue to pay for those programs.

Once again, Congress provides an example of why the government is not competent to run the lives of Americans or dictate how private companies can and should be run. As Americans begin to understand and the negative impacts government overreach into our daily lives and voice opposition, will the government listen? In the case of healthcare reform, the Congress proves that it is unwilling or unable to listen the American people.